1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for supplying articles to, and transporting articles away from, an article-converting machine served by a robot, and to a magazine device for carrying out the method.
2. Description of the Prior Art
One aim in the manufacturing industry is to utilize mechanical equipment (typically expensive equipment) instead of a large manual workforce. This makes it possible to utilize the mechanical equipment during non-regular working hours, i.e., during so-called inconvenient working hours such as evenings, nights and week-ends.
Industrial robots are an excellent aid which, by their versatility, can be easily programmed to carry out such duties as handling of workpieces when inserting them into working machines and removing them after processing.
The robot installations used up to now have been designed with fixed conveyor belts which have been adapted to a certain article, or with conveyor belts for pallets for a number of articles and with special hoisting or conveying members for removing empty pallets or transferring empty pallets from the "supply" conveyor belt to the "pick-up" conveyor belt. In the former case the conveyor belts have to be replaced or completely rebuilt when changing over to articles of a different shape. This involves drawbacks and high readjustment costs, in particular during manufacture in limited, periodically recurring series of similar articles in the same machining equipment. In the latter case, the magazine equipment will be complicated and expensive.